Governor's actions don't show he puts interests of Alaskans first

Posted: Wednesday, October 15, 2003

I don't know how the rest of Alaska feels about Gov. Frank Murkowski, but I do believe that we should look south to California and the removal of Gray Davis as governor. Gov. Murkowski has not shown me or anyone else that he is for the state or the people. After the election, the first on his hit list was the senior citizens who helped elect him; next were the Native people of Alaska; the next plan was to attack the permanent fund dividend.

But the biggest problem was in trying to build a Murkowski dynasty by appointing his daughter to the U.S. Senate. Boy, is that a slap in the face. She just barely got re-elected in her own district this past election. Gov. Murkowski is building entitlement for his family and hang the rest of the people.

What happened to our roads he was going to build? Just another pipe dream! What happened to the tightening of the belt, cutting the cost of big government, the waste in spending, or stop hiring to replace people that leave for other jobs? What about the Department of Transpor-tation, Parks, Department of Economic Development the big daddy of government? How about special interest groups in every department? What happened to the big investigation into the workings of the Division of Families and Youth Services and the mismanagement cited by the U. S. government this past two years?

Doesn't he feel he owes the people anything? We still have the poorest court system in the United States of America with judges that let trial call after trial call go on forever. What about the killing of a young lady in Anchorage this month by a known sex offender? What was the reason he was out?

We must keep asking ourselves just what is Gov. Murkowski doing for us? He makes over $15,000 monthly from the U.S. Senate, plus what the state pays him as governor of the state of Alaska. Just how much is too much, governor?

His idea when he ran for office was to get elected and then appoint his daughter to the United States Senate, giving her a nice nest egg from the state Senate as well as being a U.S senator. What a legacy!

What if he had lost the election? He would still have a job as our U.S. senator from Alaska. Nothing lost but a possible gain of another $100,000 in income for the rest of his life. Not bad for a one-time governor.

My fellow Alaskans, if by chance the ex-governor, Tony Knowles, a Democrat, runs for the U.S. Senate next year I will be forced to vote for him across party lines, as Lisa Murkowski is not going to be shoved down my throat. Our esteemed senator has not shown me or anyone else something new except what her daddy did. Let's retire her to the jungle or she just might run for governor.

Alaska is a great state and needs a governor who looks to the future and can work with less and do more. We must build more on our fishing industries and tourist industries, lumber, coal, oil and farming. A lot of small businesses are better in the long run than one giant industry.

This is what happened in Seattle, it built around the Boeing Aircraft Company in Seattle then Boeing moved a great part of its businesses out of state. Seattle saved the day by looking to the future and encouraging other types of industry and businesses to move there, which didn't depend on Boeing Aircraft as in the past. Like Seattle, the future of Alaska is not the oil industry as a whole, but small to large businesses that don't depend on oil as their main source of income.

We must look to explore other options if this state is to survive when the oil runs out or slows down like it did in California. Alaska is a great state with many resources. We must use them all to compete in the world market from the largest oil fields to the smallest mineral, leaving no stone unturned. All the resources of the state must be utilized.

So the next time you vote, remember what happened this past year words without meaning and a governor who talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. He must hold true to ethics and integrity, which should be the very root of government.